An uncommon mix of reformers are syncing up their efforts to fight the achievement gap in education.

Set to launch next month, the Strive initiative has brought together school districts, higher-education institutions, businesses and nonprofits -- getting them into the same room if not yet completely on the same page.

Supporters say the effort tackles the key reason the gap bedevils educators: piecemeal attempts to address it don't make the smartest use of ever-scarcer dollars and ever more plentiful data.

"We are not getting the outcomes we need at present," said Kent Pekel, who until recently headed the College Readiness Consortium at the University of Minnesota, a Strive partner. "Why would we think we can get them working in isolation, given the complexity of the work?"

Strive initiatives in the Twin Cities and elsewhere draw on a vision of social change called "collective impact," which has generated national buzz and skeptics. Just last week, St. Paul school board members raised some questions: Would Strive choke off funding and attention to the good work that small, unaffiliated nonprofits do? Can so many stakeholders with diverse missions rally around the same goals and strategies?

Fans of the idea say it's shown great promise in the greater Cincinnati area, where it was born almost a decade ago.

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It was the answer to what supporters often call a "spray and pray" take on lagging education achievement: Federal and private funding went to disparate initiatives instead of a better-coordinated "cradle to career" approach.

Today, three school districts and some 300 nonprofits, foundations and universities are part of Strive in Cincinnati. They boast gains such as improved school readiness and fourth-grade reading test scores.

In the past couple of years, the Cincinnati model began migrating to cities from Seattle to Boston. Initiatives sprang up in Minnesota, too.

In the Twin Cities, the United Way has played host to an 18-month push to start the effort. Among organizations that have come on board: the teachers unions in Minneapolis and St. Paul; the mayors of both cities; education nonprofits; public and private colleges; foundations; the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce; and businesses such as 3M, Target and Cargill.

Frank Forsberg, United Way's senior vice president for innovation, calls the group "an incredible cross-section of change-makers to bring around one table."

U President Eric Kaler and Kim Nelson, president of the General Mills Foundation, have co-chaired the effort. This week, Michael Goar, most recently the second-in-command at Boston Public Schools and a former Minneapolis administrator, starts as Strive executive director.

To start, the partnership will focus on kindergarten readiness, early literacy and college readiness. It plans to identify and expand effective initiatives rather than start new programs.

It should have its pick: A recent U study counted some 500 initiatives focused on closing achievement gaps in the Twin Cities.

Michelle Walker, the St. Paul district's chief of staff, said the district is already sold on the importance of a big-picture approach.

Until recently, some 30 organizations lined up reading tutors for district elementaries. Nobody made sure that students improved or that reading materials jibed with classroom instruction. Some of the schools with the most struggling readers got no tutors at all. Now, the St. Paul Public Schools Foundation coordinates tutoring and tracks results.

But collective impact efforts such as Strive also have their critics. In the Huffington Post, former Minneapolis Foundation CEO Emmett Carson questioned whether nonprofits and foundations with disparate missions and values can jointly back solutions to complex, emotionally charged problems.

Though Forsberg got positive reviews in last week's presentation to the St. Paul school board, some of that skepticism came through.

Could Strive feed the "fatigue" the public and donors feel about the achievement gap, board member Elona Street-Stewart asked. Board member Jean O'Connell, a former 3M executive involved in its philanthropic arm, wondered whether foundations and nonprofits are ready to work in concert.

Robert Jones, the U's outgoing vice president of academic administration, said supporters came across such skepticism from the get-go.

"Not everybody in the community thought this was a good idea," he said. But, "We have more than made headway. We have come together."